


Always Find Each Other

by oudeteron



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Anniversary, Established Relationship, M/M, Nightmares of the Sea, Other, Stranded, originshipping, sneaky lyrics references because that's the kind of person I am sorry, tags and ratings subject to revision
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-05-31 07:44:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6461794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oudeteron/pseuds/oudeteron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wallace had no idea that trying to surprise Steven on their anniversary would backfire so horribly, leaving him ironically stranded at sea. A celebration then becomes something much trickier: recovery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One with the Waves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cherrytruck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrytruck/gifts).



> This fic is so so late, like, almost a year late, because I wanted it to be perfect and got too ambitious and messed up on the "actually finishing it" part. I'm so sorry that happened, but let this at least show that no matter what time, things find a way. I never would actually ditch it. Thank you so much for sticking with me, Che, and I hope you can still enjoy the fic and find it worth your while. I promise it gets better (LOL). 
> 
> And to anyone else reading, I hope you also dig!

This was not how Wallace had wanted to spend their anniversary.

It wasn't often that he would have preferred to be on firm ground, safe in the knowledge that nothing too unpredictable was about to happen, or at least that the likelihood of some unstoppable force flinging him out of existence was radically low. Just this once, Wallace would have preferred to be somewhere warm, somewhere with food and entertainment, somewhere a person could take shelter in a way that counted. And on top of the misfortune of not currently being in such a place, now it was definitely too late in the day for Steven not to expect him back home – _Steven..._

The name cost Wallace half a second of carelessness, immediately punished by the next cresting wave rolling right over him with the kind of ferocity that would have instantly dunked anyone else under, never to resurface. Since Wallace had been through a fair share of waves, he emerged from this one gasping for breath, hair plastered to his face even as the rain drenched it anew. The whole world had become water, nothing but water, the sky and sea blending in with the clouds and all else being equal.

It should have been a quick purposeful swim. Someone whose entire training, not to mention the majority of their life, had been spent in and around Sootopolis, should not have been so easily caught off guard. Wallace recalled with bitterness he had never felt towards the sea before how he had snuck out on a supposedly cloudless morning without informing Steven or taking any of his Pokemon to what was only supposed to be a short, efficient round trip. A surprise. Nothing to be alarmed about, a route taken a thousand times and then some.

Confident mistakes. The worst kind after all.

The dark, drooping storm clouds had rolled in around the start of Wallace's swim back. As far as weather patterns went, this one was not normal: otherwise, someone like Wallace would have predicted it. Expected it, and prepared for it accordingly.

By never setting foot into the sea that day, because someone like Wallace had to know the difference between a brave swimmer and a hazardously foolish one.

Now he'd lost track of how long he had spent clinging to this particular piece of driftwood, fingertips too numb to feel the rough texture anymore. This was, without a doubt, the worst weather to hit Hoenn since the crisis, and at least _that_ had taken forces beyond the scope of the common world to form. Wallace excelled in the water – having served years as the Sootopolis gym leader, there was nothing less to settle for – but he was well past the point of managing anything more than to tread it in one spot, uncomfortably aware of the abyss below. Earlier in the ordeal, he would have said his entire body hurt; now he simply felt nothing. Everything, his very nerves, might as well have been liquefied and dissolved seamlessly in the ocean. Even the carefully assembled bag of heart scales he had collected as a small gift for Steven was now tumbling towards the ocean floor.

Wallace's thinking mind seemed to be doing the same, bobbing in and out of focus like a buoy in the tide. How could anyone be so utterly, hopelessly drained and yet surrounded by water? Was it all the salt? Was he crying?

The last thing he saw was another bright bolt in the storm clouds and then whatever light was left in the world went out, leaving only the roar of water without beginning and without end.


	2. The Sky After the Clouds

And then there was the sun.

Not that Wallace even recognized it as such, not at first. What jolted him awake was a feeling. The log he was still somehow clutching had dug into his side, bobbing along in the shallow bay he must have drifted into. To the questions of when and how, his mind drew a blank.

But he hadn't let go.

Drawing a shaky, self-conscious breath, Wallace tried to stand – then promptly settled for crawling forward onto the beach proper. It looked like one of those islands west of Pacifidlog, where the fast currents ran towards Slateport much to the ire of any stray trainers who overestimated their abilities or luck. Wallace flopped onto his back, staring at the sky, trying to get his waterlogged senses to process. He was alive.

Slowly, as the realization sank in, all that came with survival against the odds demanded its due. Wallace's stomach rumbled. His eyes burned. His hands were rubbed raw from holding onto driftwood in salt water for so long. His joints ached, while muscles were simply numbed beyond caring. Lips dried to a crisp. Throat parched. Water. Stranded at sea, and there was still no water.

There should have been something to do, anything to make at least one brave attempt at getting himself to safety, but just the image of that impending task seemed to drain Wallace's strength even further. Everywhere was just a mindless expanse of sea and sand.

Usually, Wallace would sense hidden signs of life from the very depths of Hoenn's oceans, a place he had felt an affinity with since childhood – but right at this moment there was nothing, nothing that could help him or make him feel welcome. The sea was quiet. That, or Wallace's hearing itself had been washed away, swallowed up by the storm.

The sea had spoken and judged him a better fit for land.

How many hours he'd spent collapsed there was something Wallace would never recall later. All he knew was that after an eternity of silence, some far-off noises floated into his ears.

A boat, it had to be a boat – did it suddenly appear or had he completely passed out? Had they noticed that someone was here, or was the rushing tide carrying the boat along, soon to be stranded along with him? But he watched as a ragtag band of shadows jumped overboard, splashing in the shallow waves. They came closer, wading towards the beach. There was a figure in their midst that grew increasingly familiar.

Through the haze of exhaustion, Wallace lifted his head. It was more by sheer willpower than any physical capacity that he spoke and barely managed to cough out, _“Archie?”_


	3. Lost and Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After much hardship, a reunion is finally in the works.

Of all the things to have happen – other than a water-type champion getting totally lost in his element, that is – being rescued by a gloating eco-rogue he had once helped put out of business was very high up the scale of sheer ridiculousness. It was, of course, better than not being rescued at all, but it also held more irony than Wallace was prepared to deal with in his already exhausted state. So he just lay there with a wet towel on his forehead, his entire body aching, under a giant parasol striped white and blue and emblazoned with a Team Aqua logo that no one seemed to bother refreshing as, thankfully, it faded away.

If the universe was trying to deliver a lesson, it was not lost on Wallace. Letting both of those upstart teams off lightly – to the chagrin of many upstanding Hoenn citizens – may well have saved his own life. Back then, it had been just about holding back on overly harsh punishments of people who had largely acted out of naive ignorance, and who ended up being just as horrified as everyone else when their ideas at last came to fruition. Now, Wallace supposed, he had a whole new reason to be glad for that decision, one that had nothing to do with grand designs of social re-integration.

“So, how're you coping?” a silhouette spoke above him.

“Mhh,” he managed with his throat dry. Archie handed him another pitcher of water. “Thank you. Sorry you had to see me like that, I –”

Archie laughed and shook his head. “Eh, I still owed you one from when you and all those scamps saved me and my crew some jail time. That's on top of, you know, saving the world.”

“Trust me, the temptation was there.” Wallace's voice still had the smoothness of sandpaper, but talking to Archie was proving unexpectedly soothing. “You're a good person, Archie. Sometimes we all need to get a few life lessons, even if they're not enjoyable ones...”

Archie gave him a sympathetic look. “Like the one you've just been through?”

“Like that one.”

“But say,” Archie continued after a thoughtful pause, “what was that supposed to teach you anyway? You seem like one of those people who never do a thing wrong.”

Wallace nodded vaguely. All the interpretations of the past day or so that came to mind were frankly depressing. Don't get too confident about the things you're good at? Don't even think about going out of your way to make your partner happy? Wallace's heart sank. Steven was probably assembling a whole fleet of Devon-sponsored lifeboats by now.

“I don't know,” he answered with the only thing he was sure about. “Random things happen too.”

“Aye, aye.” Straightening up, Archie took a long look around. “Still, you have to admit. The sea's beautiful all the same.”

There were more emotional pitfalls in that statement than Wallace was prepared to navigate, making his answer a little oblique. “You did just rescue me from it, so I'm not going to argue the point.” Archie's laugh was sincere, a thrill of amusement that made up for all his usual bravado.

Wallace's awareness of the ship's route was intermittent at best, most of his attention still consumed by a volatile mix of dehydration and nausea, and so he took Archie's word for it when they seemed to be approaching Mossdeep. He didn't even remember arriving at the hospital, and only hoped he had managed to thank Archie enough for saving his life before the ambulance took off.

*

The next time he awoke, it was to the scent of flowers and a strange awareness that despite the almost complete silence disturbed only by the hospital machines, he wasn't alone. That second feeling was what persuaded Wallace to crack his eyes open, hopeful and worried all at once.

Steven was at his bedside, his gaze fixed on Wallace with an intensity that immediately transformed into relief at Wallace's sudden movement. For a long moment, the two of them stared at each other, until Steven let out an exhale that sounded halfway like a sob.

“I missed you so much,” he said quietly.

“What kind of a hello is that,” Wallace tried to joke, but it fell about as flat as he expected. To his credit, Steven did attempt a laugh that, again, came out as something close to crying, even though his eyes were dry. Wallace suspected that he had cried them out the previous day already.

One of Steven's hands was resting gently on Wallace's bandaged one, and although Wallace could hardly move his fingers, he moved his palm just enough to indicate that he felt it. Steven began rubbing lightly back and forth, clearly too concerned to do much more.

“Sorry. I'm just so glad you're back and the relief is still hitting me,” Steven said after a while. “Don't worry now, I don't want you to feel bad, but –”

“It was a really bad idea. Things can happen and you should never just go out without any communication, I don't know what I thought would happen there.”

Steven was still holding it together, but it was clear he had spent the past day sleepless and desperately trying to get any word of where Wallace had been. “When the storm hit the town, I guessed that must have been how you – what happened to you. The coast guard said they couldn't go out to sea until it cleared up. My dad could only help with some live weather images and trying to pick up signal from your Pokénav. Wallace, I – what happened?”

“Did Archie tell you?”

Steven nodded. “Well, he told me the end of it. But I mean, why did you leave just like that? I just feel like I could have prevented all this...”

Wallace didn't feel too excited at the prospect of retelling the story, but at the same time he already felt a bit better thanks to the rest and a solid diet of IV drips. Meanwhile, Steven still looked like he hadn't slept or eaten for longer than anyone should. An explanation would probably make a difference, and an explanation he would get – if only Wallace could find a way to dull the sheer irony of it.

“Steven. You know what day it was yesterday, right?”

Another quiet nod. Come to think of it, the flowers now bathing the room with fragrance did look a little wilted. As if they had been bought yesterday, forgotten about as Steven feared the worst, then repurposed in a rush as a get-well-soon present instead of the much more cheerful occasion Steven had meant them for.

“So I thought it would be clever to make you a string of heart scales. I needed to collect the materials first, which normally would have taken just a half hour of a swim, and I wanted it to be a surprise. I went out to get them before you woke up...”

They had a running joke about their respective daily rhythms, about Wallace being quick to arrange everything that needed to be done and then some, while Steven took his time even getting out of bed unless pressured to by some obligation. Which was exactly what he must have spent the past twenty-four hours beating himself up over, losing Wallace because of something so banal as catching some extra sleep.

“Wallace...I really appreciate the thought you put into this, but...”

“But it did more harm than good, didn't it.”

“No, I was going to say—” Steven looked Wallace in the face and held onto his hand a little bit tighter, “—there's no better gift for me than knowing that you're safe. I mean, of course I appreciate presents, and I have some more for you waiting at home. But without you, there would be nothing to celebrate at all. I'd be so happy to just spend the day with you, and treat you to some nice food and drinks and make the best of it together. As long as you're there, as long as you're safe and happy, that's the best and biggest gift for me. That's what really matters and I'm never going to forget it now, for anything.”

From the way Steven's voice was shaking, Wallace didn't need to ask whether he really meant it. “Well, we could still do that,” he offered. “If you're serious about really wanting to treat me as much as you can. After all, I did go through all this trouble just to get you a gift, and that can't be taken back. But if you really mean it, you can start making up for it a little.”

Steven smiled. “I'd be honoured to do that. Starting with a big welcome home.”

“You can start now,” Wallace corrected. “Do tell, what is it that you missed so much about me...”


End file.
